Men's Golf Headline

Saturday May 18, 2002Men's Golf Drops at NCAA Regional, Make Cut

The
No. 4 University of Florida mens golf team dropped in the final day of the
NCAA East Regional Saturday hosted at the Settindown Creek Golf Club by Georgia
Tech.Florida made a strong comeback to
be in fourth after round two but slipped to T9 after shooting 21-over to finish
899 (+35).

The
Clemson Tigers took an early lead and held it despite a rally by Georgia Tech
in round two.The Tigers held on to
first place, but will have to share the championship honors with the Yellow
Jackets with both shooting 12-over 876.Clemsons D.J. Trahan won the individual title with his 6-under
210.

UF
opened the weekend with a tough opening round and they closed it in the same
manner.The Gators tallied 11 double
bogies or worse on the day.On the
bright side, they also shot 13 birdies and two top-20 finishes.The best UF finisher was senior Camilo
Benedetti (Medellin, Colombia) whose 4-over 220 scored him a tie for 13th.No. 1 Camilo Villegas (Medellin,
Colombia) tied for 18th carding 75-71-75221 (+5).

We
had a poor first round, but I was proud of how these guys bounced back,
Florida head coach Buddy Alexander said.I have no idea what happened today.We have been very consistent all year not finishing outside sixth.We started shooting badly and we couldnt
turn it around.We got lucky that we
finished with some good scores and got lucky to make the cut.We dodged a huge bullet today and hopefully
we will get it together for the championships.

The
Gators did make the ten team cut and will advance to the NCAA Championships
hosted at the Ohio State Scarlett on May 29-June 1.UF won the national title at the 2001 NCAA Championships hosted
at Duke University.